State of the World's Animal Genetic Resources

Tue, 14 Oct 2008

Photo: IUCN

To assess the current situation and encourage country-level actions, FAO coordinated a first country-driven State of the World’s AnGR reporting process. Special attention is given to the Breed Diversity in Dryland Ecosystems and the significant role pastoral people fulfill as breeder of a high diversity of Animal genetic resources. The findings of this report are that livestock diversity is mostly maintained in the drylands (on average 46%). The report further came to show that three percent of the dryland breeds are reported as extinct and 4% of the world’s breeds found in the drylands are classified as at risk, having a total number of breeding females equal or lower to 1000 or the total number of breeding males less than or equal to 20.